Major French Political Party Puts Repealing HADOPI/Three Strikes On Its Platform

from the but-suggests-a-blanket-license-instead dept

Apparently the secretary of the Socialist Party in France -- which came in second in the last elections, so is a serious party there -- has suggested that the party is interested in appealing HADOPI. Hadopi, for those not paying attention, is the French three strikes plan, designed to kick accused (not convicted) file sharers off the internet. Instead, she is proposing a blanket license on ISPs. Such ideas have been discussed elsewhere, and I believe there are significant and serious problems with a blanket ISP tax, but on the whole, it's a much more acceptable solution than kicking people off the internet. At the very least, it's focused on a carrot-approach, rather than an unworkable stick-approach.

That said, there are still significant problems with any such blanket license, many of which we've covered in the past. It significantly distorts the market, and often at the expense of up-and-coming artists. It also kicks off an ever upwards ratcheting process that we've seen historically with collection societies. Furthermore, it sounds like the Socialist Party's ideas here still include "strengthening of copyright, particularly in the digital sphere." That sounds like a step backwards.

Reader Comments

Anything to sneak a new tax in. They'll even pretend that they're running for all the right reasons, while at the same time trying to figure out how they can use it to slip the next tax under the door.

Re: Re: Socialist p2p tax proposal

Wimps, smokescreen

The French Socialist Party, like most of Europe's old social-democrats and communist parties of yore, are wimps in decomposition, offering no real alternatives to the existing political order. As such, they are nothing but make-believe plasters on the democratic facade. In my view, Royal's declaration of intent about Hadopi must be understood in the context of the coming Socialist Party primaries and presidental elections, baiting a substantial segment of France's disgruntled youth.

I hope to hell the US implements an ISP tax

I don't pirate content at all and for the most part I don't buy it either. I rent using Redbox and Netflix and that is about it. If the US implements a small tax, say a buck or two, then that will give me a license to steal. Well, it won't be stealing since I am paying a license for the content right?

Seriously though, I hope they never do that here as that is major illegal in my book. But if they do, I assure you I will become the worlds largest pirate in the world. ;)

Where does the money go?

Last time I checked on related figures, 24% of all duties levied on music played in public in Italy went to the artists. That's right, twenty-four percent. Guess where the rest went.

A long time ago, a close acquaintance of mine had his composition works played for a whole hour on Belgium's National Radio network, who automatically deposit any relevant duties to SABAM, the entity in that country that allegedly manages artists' rights. Years later, passing through Belgium again and a bit broke, he tried to get paid, but was told that unclaimed duties and related archives were deleted after 10 years. Compare that to the current 70 years or the 100 years such entities would love to keep on claiming copyright for.